Suppression of,the,native hydrolytic activity of Pseudozyma antarctica lipase B (PalB) (formerly Candida antarctica lipase B) in water is demonstrated. By replacing the catalytic Ser 105 residue with an alanine unit, promiscuous Michael addition activity is favored. A Michael addition reaction between methyl acrylate and acetylacetone was explored as a model system. For the PalB Ser 105 Ala mutant, the hydrolytic activity was suppressed more than 1000 times and at the same time, the Michael addition activity was increased by a factor of 100. Docking studies and molecular dynamics simulations revealed an increased ability of the PalB Ser 105 Ala mutant to harbor the substrates close to a catalytically competent conformation.

Applaudable promiscuity: Racemase-type activity discovered for B. cepacia lipase with N-substituted α-aminonitriles is proposed to involve a C-C bond-breaking/forming mechanism in the hydrolase site of the enzyme, as supported by experimental data and calculations. This promiscuous activity in combination with the transacylation activity of the enzyme enabled the asymmetric synthesis of N-methyl α-aminonitrile amides in high yield (see scheme).

An efficient single-enzymatic cascade approach for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral amines has been developed, which applies the amino donor 3-aminocyclohexa-1,5-dienecarboxylic acid spontaneously tautomerizing to reach reaction completion with excellent ee values.